Astoria Park Alliance, founded in 2007, wins award for cleaning and beautifying park

Astoria Park Alliance

March 13, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan

A local parks group was recognized with an award for its service to the community this week.

The Astoria Parks Alliance was given the Golden Trowel Award by the Partnership for Parks on Wednesday night, recognizing the commitment of the volunteers to improving the park and its service to the borough of Queens.

“It’s a wonderful acknowledgement for the volunteers who make a lot of sacrifices in their lives to work to improve the park,” said APA chair Martha Lopez-Gilpin. “The award is really an acknowledgement of how iconic Astoria Park is, and that it is truly a city park that brings people together.”

The APA was founded in 2007 by a group of volunteers looking to clean up and improve Astoria Park, and has worked as an advocate on issues of safety, ecology, park usage, and sanitation over the years.

“I am proud that Partnership for Parks has recognized the Astoria Park Alliance for all their hard work,” said Councilman Costa Constantinides, who presented the APA with the award on Wednesday.

“For years, the APA has advocated for the needs of Astoria Park, the jewel of our neighborhood. Its members have worked for better amenities, environmental upgrades, accessibility, and safety improvements both inside the park itself and for the surrounding community. They have been great role models of civic engagement and community cooperation.”

The APA was recognized for holding bimonthly park cleanups from April through November in 2016, as well as hosting events and beautifying the park. It hosted events in conjunction with the Department of Transportation that shut down Shore Boulevard and allowed community access to the waterfront, among many other programs throughout the year.

Gilpin said that the group has big plans for the year ahead. The group will continue to work with the City in planning the $30 million upgrade to the park, which came about as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Anchor Park program.

In the near future, the group is planning a huge Earth Day celebration on April 22 which will again shut down Shore Boulevard to traffic, and will include a park and shore cleanup, planting projects, and activities for adults and children, such as birdhouse making and relay races.

The APA was acknowledged alongside six other groups on Wednesday, four of which received Golden Trowel Awards for their specific borough, and two of which received other awards.

First of all of many of the members don’t even live in Astoria. Secondly I see how hard they work cleaning disgusting debris from the shore, picking up trash and protecting the sustainable green space in the park. Why not go to one of their meetings and get to know them and work with them to protect our park and environment rather than say something derogatory about citizens who at least try to do good. What do you do for our park I wonder?

Thomas – We’d really like to meet you and further discuss your goals and motives. We are a group of unpaid community volunteers that support the conservation and sustainability of Astoria Park while advocating for green and open space.

Please check our list of events and join us for at a volunteer project for a larger discussion. We’d love to have a meaningful conversation.

Congratulations! Keep up the good work especially during the open pool season when the park is a mess. Please stick around for the Taxi ferry and the proposed Brooklyn-Queens trolley that will begin/end at Astoria Park.

The NYC Ferry system is set to undergo a significant expansion in coming months, with the Astoria route, connecting the western Queens neighborhood to Wall Street, getting a new stop at the Brooklyn Navy Yard this spring.

A 24-year-old Brooklyn man who crashed his car on the BQE in 2017 and left a 25-year-old Astoria woman inside his burning vehicle to die was sentenced yesterday to four to 12 years in prison, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.